Guild President’s Newsletter – July 2015

I have been holding off on this Newsletter so I could announce the Dry-docking date. It is now officially in the signed contract for ‘on or about’ July 21. The uncertainty of the date and my hesitancy to announce it was due to a crane-barge that was in the dock that has just been un-docked (on Wednesday). The dock needs to be pumped down and cleaned (in progress) and then we can start building the blocking next week. As Lisa mentioned in the Weekly News there will be meeting this Saturday for volunteers. If you are interested in helping, especially during the week, please be sure to attend. The docking is scheduled for 4 weeks so we should be out on Aug 18. Don’t assume you won’t be needed or that if you can only spare a few days that won’t work for us. We need you!

There will also be a briefing given by the shipyard (Rhoads Industries) (date to be announced) for those working in the dock. As you can imagine there are lots of safety rules.

We are also looking at the possibility of a fund raiser near the end of the docking period so stay tuned for that as well.

As previously mentioned the intent of this docking is to repair a known leak, fix any damaged copper and pull a strake of planking below the waterline to assess the condition of the frames. Zinc replacement and hull fitting inspections will be done as well. This hull assessment is a key element to help us gauge the extent of future work.

Poplar will also be docked at the same time. She is in need of some plating repairs and painting. There are opportunities for volunteers here also.

Tall Ships Festival

Thanks for all the volunteers for the Tall Ships Philadelphia-Camden event. The ship looked great. I received several compliments including some from Tall Ships America staff. A special thanks goes out to Lisa Kolibabek, the Volunteer Coordinator, the GLAD Committee (Marie Jordan, Alice Krieg, Alex Stewart and Steve Schmid), the Persons-in-Charge and cooks under Debbie Greenspan’s guidance. Given the complex logistics of the festival and a rainy Saturday, we did a fantastic job accommodating over 9000 visitors. All enjoyed their visit. To support participate in the event we needed to renew our USCG Certificate of Inspection and, thanks to the preparation under our Superintendent of Ships, Patrick Flynn, we accomplished that goal as well. Well done to all involved in preparing the ships and serving as crew, including volunteers from Oliver Hazard Perry.